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THE notion of a ‘naya Pakistan’ has collectively fascinated everyone. Where there is anxiety, there is excitement. Where there is encouragement, there is detraction. But everyone is waiting with bated breath to see what Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan will look like.

Regime change is always tricky — particularly for human rights activists. So PTI leader Naeemul Haque’s tweet promising to ban police torture was particularly welcome. It comes at the heels of a ground-breaking probe being held by the National Commission on Human Rights into nearly 1,424 cases of police torture, based on the government’s own evidence, uncovered by Justice Project Pakistan in just one district of Punjab over a six-year period.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. In a first, 13 police officials were called to record their testimonies into severe allegations of torture. This inquiry is the basis to meaningful reform if accountability, so central to the PTI’s ethos, begins to inform police culture. The incoming government would do well to keep an eye on the inquiry’s findings.

People are always surprised to learn that there is no comprehensive legislation that outlaws police torture in Pakistan. But it would certainly explain why it keeps happening to men, women and children alike.

The consequences of police brutality go far beyond the physical.

Huriya and her husband were attacked by police officers in their home in Faisalabad without explanation. They kicked her, very deliberately in the abdomen, despite her screaming that she was pregnant. On a mere suspicion of theft, the police brutalised the couple for 15 minutes — only stopping when Huriya fell unconscious. Unsurprisingly, she miscarried.

Just recently, a 12-year-old child was found handcuffed in a lock-up in Larkana and kept in a detention cell with adult offenders. He was lucky that a judge conducted a raid on the station. He could have stayed there for months had they not arrived to witness chains bigger than his childish wrists keeping him standing for hours. He says the police threatened to shoot him in the knees.

Even people who seek the police’s intervention to protect them are often subjected to harassment, which often gets physical if they persist. A man in Faisalabad tried to lodge an FIR over a money dispute. In response, they booked him instead. That’s what he got for trying to file a complaint against those who enjoy local police’s patronage. He was beaten with sticks so badly that his eyesight and hearing were permanently damaged. They made his young son watch. Had there been a computerised system to register FIRs, like the one the PTI installed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, perhaps his reality would have been different.

The consequences of police brutality go far beyond the physical. Our entire criminal justice system is worse off for it. Interrogations centred around getting answers, and not necessarily the correct ones, mean that actual perpetrators walk free. The use of torture is often the answer when a suspect is unable to bribe their way out of it. This has led many innocent people to wrongful convictions and sentences. Many prisoners, who do survive being brutalised, end up being sent to the gallows purely on the basis of torture-induced confessions. Torture may not kill them immediately, but it is certainly what takes their lives.

A bill that criminalised torture was first tabled in parliament in 2014, but in the four years since, the National Assembly has been unable to pass it into law. The PML-N government put forth a national Action Plan for Human Rights in February, 2016. It set a six-month deadline to pass the Torture, Custodial Death and Custodial Rape Bill. Why it did not prioritise it is a question that perhaps can now be answered by the PTI’s swift action on this matter.

It is no small feat that the spokesperson of Pakistan’s governing party has committed to remedying this legal lacuna, where other governments have failed. The PTI has often been congratulated for its extensive police reforms in KP. Depoliticising the police through a merit-based recruitment system is a first step to eradicate corruption in the force. But for this to take root, the motivation to torture must be removed.

Torture has remained politically, socially and morally acceptable as a practice for a police force that is resource-strapped, desensitised and overburdened. The police must be provided enough resources to reliably investigate crime, not resort to beating the answer out of defendants. If the police are well-paid, then bribes become less appealing to take from the poor — who bear the brunt of police torture, as Mr Haque correctly identified.

Criminalising torture would be testament to the PTI’s commitment to justice, and long-repeated promises of equalising everyone before the law. Just like Mr Khan, we have waited too long for this opportunity.

On DawnNews

Comments (9) Closed

Uza Syed

Aug 26, 2018 12:47pm

Very useful and timely write up about police brutality and our, general, indifference or even acceptance as a need for crime control and bringing the offenders under control by any means including torture. The writer and others like her who are actively involved with anti torture and violation of prisoners’ human rights must keep the pressure on so that this new government doesn’t waver from their policy and promise to create a just system for all.

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Alba

Aug 26, 2018 01:45pm

Study police forces in developing countries. Their conduct is very similar and often more brutal. You see, after 5 or 10 years policemen develop a very bad opinion of people and will mistreated the powerless. The solution is not to be born poor. Look closely at police forces in other countries that are worse. It is a job for professors of criminology and their grad students.

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JA-Australia

Aug 26, 2018 02:01pm

Some police stations mistook the old PTV drama 'Andhera Ujala; as a training video.

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fairplay

Aug 26, 2018 03:44pm

thank you for highlighting this issue. the police brutalize, misusing their power, because cases dont get filed against them, or they have a powerful ally, or overlord. this is as much a cultural issue as it is an issue of overwork, or low pay. the encounter police officer Rao from Malir comes to mind. the courts grant these culprits too much leeway. abscond for two months and then decide to show up, and get bail, what a mockery of justice.

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Javed

Aug 26, 2018 07:38pm

Simply stop recruting criminals in police force.

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FIDA SAYANI

Aug 26, 2018 07:59pm

A great article. Only two days back I saw a Pakistani movie MAALIK, this must be after forty years. The movie shows the brutality of the police, politicians and the rogue elements attached to them. In reality all these things shown the movie exist in present day Pakistan. Eliminating them is a big task. Will Imran Khan will be able to remove such dark acts, I hope so?

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Khan

Aug 26, 2018 08:45pm

Excellent write-up...

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Zak

Aug 26, 2018 08:54pm

Police recruitment should be from local localities and from the denizens of that city. Local police will not rob from own localities. The senior officers should be recruited on merit. IK had said he wanted a US based system of having Sherifs appointed through local elections every few years. Do good job, they stay, bad job, deselected.

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Bill

Aug 27, 2018 02:14am

The people of Pakistan live in two different worlds. Sarah Bilal lives in one and the majority of Pakistanis without influence live in the other Pakistan. The police have nothing to do with national politics and everything to do with local politics.